Princes of the Shifting Sands
by Hannahmayski
Summary: Shisui has been sitting in the same tomb for thousands of years. Staring at the same walls for as long as the pyramids have stood. Madara is his father, but he is also a madman, and if Shisui lets him out, he'll destroy everything he sees, set alight everything he touches and burn every human until all that's left is a shadow of a memory. (Part 1 of my Egyptian AU)


**Fic Title Meme asks (that keep turning into mini fics so they're on here now too)**

 **Summary: Shisui has been sitting in the same tomb for thousands of years. Staring at the same walls for as long as the pyramids have stood.**

 **He breathes in stale air that his body doesn't need and breathes out just as he does every day and every night, every sunrise and every sunset.**

 **Madara is his father, but he is also a madman, and if Shisui lets him out, he'll destroy everything he sees, set alight everything he touches and burn every human until all that's left is a shadow of a memory.**

 **(Or: Egyptian AU, and Shisui is the only responsible Uchiha)**

* * *

Shisui has been sitting in the same tomb for thousands of years. Staring at the same walls for as long as the pyramids have stood.

He breathes in stale air that his body doesn't need and breathes out just as he does every day and every night, every sunrise and every sunset.

He looks down at his arms, pale and far too thin and hates the man in this tomb with so much venom and Shisui's nails dig into his skin.

Madara is his father, but he is also a madman, and if Shisui lets him out, he'll destroy everything he sees, set alight everything he touches and burn every human until all that's left is a shadow of a memory.

Shisui has never been entirely fond of humans, never liked their carefree smiles and their unweighted shoulders, how they can walk with not a care in the world.

(At least that is what Shisui tells himself. But Shisui, even having been dead for thousands of years, has always been entirely too human. Always loved too hard, felt to heard - bathed in emotions.  
And maybe that's what ties him to Madara's tomb. Fear, love, hate, guilt. For a dead man, Shisui is more human than some humans. And here he waits giving up his entire exist to protect the people he claims to hate.)

But Shisui thinks of Itachi and his smile and his laugh and how he died too soon. He lived long, very long through human eyes, but so very short through his own. He thinks of how much Itachi had loved him when he had no reason too, how much Itachi loved the flowers and the rising sun. How he's held Shisui's head between his hands and looked at Shisui like he was human, like he wasn't a monster.

There are some humans who have lost that love, there are some who are evil, but there are also people like Itachi and that's why Shisui sits and waits because those precious lives will be slaughtered and burned to ashes when the only thing they'd ever done was love a world that wanted them dead.

It's not like there's anyone else for the job, with Kagami _still_ fawning after that Senju even after centuries of never making a move and Obito refuses to come near him unless he blindfolds himself.

(Shisui had been told the Eye of Set was a gift from the gods themselves, but so far, it's only brought Shisui pain. His own brother, his closest brother hasn't spoken to him since he awakened them, and that was a long, long time ago.)

Not to mention, Shisui is sure Obito has enough unhinged insanity that he'd join Madara at the drop of a hat, and Shisui did _not_ lock himself in Madara's tomb for thousands of years for all his efforts to be thwarted by Obito's lack of sanity.

Sai still hasn't woken since he was mummified alive after he spoke out against their mother's execution and Shisui can't help but worry that something went wrong and that Sai will never open his eyes again.

Shisui is the only one. Shisui is the only one who can and _will_ keep Madara from destroying the world as they know it.

And so Shisui sits as he has done for thousands of years, and as he will for thousands more.

* * *

There's a crack, a thump and Shisui flinches, jerking from his seated position, iris and pupils duplicating in that way that Obito hates so much and hieratic markings forming across pale skin.

The ceiling falls through and light bursts into the little room and Shisui glares up at the hole with a ferocity that never fails to make even Kagami run from him.

There are whispers, frantic and uncertain and Shisui catches ' _there is something moving in there, don't go in'_ before something falls through the hole.

Blond hair and bright eyes that Shisui has always wished for rather than the _curse_ that resides in his own stare back at him.

"Hey," the boy says and Shisui takes a step forward. He has no time for little, ignorant humans. Madara cannot be awakened, and he will not let stupid humans be the death of themselves.

" _Leave. Now."_

The boy immediately raises his hands in surrender, but he doesn't look scared. Instead, this boy stares back at him with naked curiosity.

"I know those markings," he says. "What are you protecting?"

"It is _you_ I protect," Shisui says and the child sends a glance beyond Shisui where Shisui's father lay in his sarcophagus and his eyebrows shoot to his hairline as he observes the tomb.

"You've been here for a long time, huh," he whispers and lowers his hands. "So, what you're protecting is dangerous."

" _Yes._ I do not wish for humanity's demise, so here I guard."

The boy walks forward and extends one hand and Shisui finds himself stepping back because this is just like Itachi. Itachi had reached out a hand to a monster, and the monster was stupid enough to take it. The monster learnt how to love, and the monster learnt how much love hurts.

Shisui is not going through it again. Shisui _cannot_ go through that again, and so he hisses back, dead blood boils in his veins and Shisui distantly realises he is scared.

"You've been here for a _really_ long time," the boy says, and moves forward gently grasping Shisui's hand in his own and it's so warm that Shisui tries to jerk his hand from the boy's grip.

"It's okay," the boy whispers. "You don't need to be alone any longer," he smiles as bright as the sun that had burst into the tomb that Shisui hasn't seen in at least two thousand years.

"I cannot leave," Shisui says, his voice betrays none of what he is feeling, he has lived for far too many years to slip up.

"Nah, you can just sit with us for a bit, you know? You seem pretty lonely here all alone."

Shisui swallows thickly and two heads poke through the gap, worried faces turning into disbelief.

"My name is Naruto!" The boys say proudly jutting a thumb at his chest grinning from ear to ear. He gestures to the pink haired woman who slides through the hole next "Sakura," he says and points at the black haired boy. "Sasuke."

"What's your name?" he asks, tilting his head and Shisui's brain comes to a confused standstill.

This boy talks to him like he's talking to a fellow human, holds his hand like Shisui isn't a monster, looks at him like he's _alive._

"Shisui," he says for the first time in thousands of years.

The three humans smile back at him and Shisui knows this can't last. Nothing good ever does, but for all of Shisui's hideous traits, for all the humanity that's been sucked out of him over all these years, for all that he's constantly hurting, he finds himself smiling too.

There's no way this happiness can last, but Shisui reaches out for it, grasping desperately at their beautiful smiles filled with so much happiness. Shisui will be broken by the end of this, when they pack up and leave this tomb and leave another gaping wound in Shisui's heart, right next to the still bleeding wound Itachi left.

Shisui finds himself holding onto their kindness, and he hates himself for it all the more.

Shisui can't have these little pieces bliss, and he should have learnt the first time it broke him.


End file.
